The last race in the winter series took us to the familiar venue of Nash Woods near Presteigne. The fine weather deserted us for the first time and it was cool and pretty wet to begin with. I didn’t see much of the new course, as I was helping at the finish, but by all accounts, it was pretty challenging, if a little shorter than the old course.
The ladies were led home by team captain Laura Tootell in an excellent 8th place, despite nursing an injury. With Becki Ansfield unable to run through injury, we were delighted to welcome back Jane Hayde, who finished a creditable 24th, in her first race in WVR colours for a while. Not far behind in 27th was 3rd counter Lorna Shaw, having another brilliant run in her comeback season. Closing the team this time was Sian Champken in 48th, with yet another stirling effort to ensure a scoring team. On the day, the ladies were 5th again, but unfortunately we did not have a full team in the first race, so could not feature in the series team rankings.
The men were a bit thin on the ground also. Christian Jones led the team home in 18th, closely followed by Steven Flowers in 25th. Next in 49th was another on the comeback trail in Dave Klotz. Paddy Nugent completed the team in 56th. Further down the field in 71st and also nursing an injury was Tony Champken. Given probably our lowest turnout, the men could only finish 7th on the day.
Moving onto the series results, there were some great individual performances, by both the women and the men. With the best three performances to count, Emily Davies Finished 5th FV 40, Laura Tootell was 2nd in in the FV45 category, with Becki Ansfield just missing out in 4th. Sian Champken was equal 6th in the FV50s and Lorna Shaw won the FV60 category with three straight wins. Amazing running Lorna.
In the mens, Steven Flowers finished 5th in a very competitive M35 category. Christian Jones was 2nd in the MV50s and Mark Dunn, in his first season for us, was 6th in the MV55 category. Paddy Nugent also with three straight wins, took the MV60 prize. Tony Champken just missed out on first place in the MV65s on countback.
Despite a slightly below par performance in the last race, the men did well to secure 5th place overall in the team competition.
The final award of the day was for the club with the best age graded performance over the series. This counted every performance by every runner against an age standard, with the highest overall aggregate % determining the winner. Proving that there is no runner like an old runner, Wye Valley Runners comfortably won this award with an overall score of just under 70%. A fantastic result, to which everyone who turned out for the club contributed.
So, in conclusion, a difficult season, but everyone performed incredibly well and hopefully we can get a few more out for the next series.
